The Legend of the Twelve Orders

Long ago, there was once a king whose kingdom lay on a high upland plateau, like a shallow bowl rimmed around by snow-capped mountains. It was very beautiful and his people were free and content. They accepted their world for what it was. But the king understood that they must work towards unseen goals, for all time, not just for this time, and for all peoples, not just for his peoples. He wondered how to band them together.

He observed that each person has a natural inclination which might draw them to something beyond the here and now:

Some people looked up to the skies above the mountain peaks
Others scanned the distant horizons
Still others peered into the deep cracks and chasms of the earth

But this was not enough. Like this, they would all go their own ways from here to eternity.

So the king decided to see how each person acted in this world. He looked deeper into its heart, and saw Three Arrows there, that had been shot there at the beginning of time. But unlike ordinary arrows, each one was forever moving in two directions at once. And each one ran a different way - one moved both above and below, one behind and before, and one to left and right. Because their centres met, the world attained stability and all its inhabitants a sense of place. And yet there was always the essence of movement in them.

There were those who always moved forward, who tried to discover what was ahead of them
Others trained their senses to know what lay behind them
Some turned to the right-hand way, seeking the light of day and the blessings of society
Others walked alone and made their own fate upon the left-hand path
Some judged nothing except by the starry pole above
Others enquired into the roots and origins of things below.

But he saw that this too was not enough. Left like this, everyone would scatter, each pursuing an individual goal. Some might bring genius to their way and achieve remarkable things, but they would not provide a tried and trusted way for all.

So the king decided to bind together pairs from these types, twelve altogether. And when two lines of action were brought together, a third force sprang up between them, and became the ideal that united them. The three together defined a space that would henceforth become the area of work for that Order. So the Twelve Orders were created for the common good. They were called:

Priests, Prophets, Magicians, Law-givers, Warriors, Artists, Explorers, Craft-workers, Traders, Messengers, Life-tenders and Perpetuators.

And in each Order, the untouchable ideal inspired their work, and reconciled their differences till they forgot they had once been of two different minds. They called the spirit of their Order the grace of the highest, and were proud that their work was thus blessed.

The Twelve were all of different aims, yet they were united by a common centre, and between the Twelve there were connections and ties, both affinities and marked differences. They were the Company of the Twelve, with allegiances and oppositions such as you might find in any society on earth.

But the king was a wise and a wily king. He knew that people are only people, and what they once regard as sacred, they will also later seek to appropriate and even destroy. He foresaw that in time many would forget the blessing of the work, of how two became three, and see it as their empire, their own to do as they pleased with. And then they would live only by the time of this world, and with an energy that might at first grow powerful but which would in time deplete according to the laws of this world.

He saw too that in time some would begin to quarrel again, remembering their original differences all too clearly. Some would say they must go up, not forward, or forward, not to the left, and thus war would be created in the Order. For a while, the ferociousness of their quarrels would sustain them, but unless new reconciliation was found - as indeed sometimes it would be - the Order would split and its members disperse.

So the king instructed certain members of each Order, and taught them as a sacred duty:

Remember the centre, the source of the Twelve
Remember the Twelve and how they are linked
Know how to call upon each of the Twelve so that they shall remember their purpose

He thus instructed them too to pass on this knowledge, by whatever means they chose - by word, image, or action.

And then he knew that he had done all that he could, and that thus, if willed by the divine, the knowledge of the Twelve Orders itself would not be lost, even when the stars in the sky are counted differently.